Vodafone continues to invest heavily in its mobile network in regional Australia, particularly in blackspot areas with limited or no network coverage, in response to what it says is growing demand for advanced mobile devices and services in regional areas.

“By working with government and participating in the Mobile Black Spots Programme, we are seeking to expand access to mobile coverage for regional Australians to help deliver all of the economic and social benefits it enables.

"More than ever before, customers look to mobile communications to stay in touch with family, friends and business colleagues. Customers in and around Molong, Manildra, Cargo, and Cudal will benefit from enhanced coverage and network performance.”

Berroeta’s comments follow last Friday’s announcement by NBN Co, the company building the National Broadband Network, that it had signed a deal with Vodafone Hutchinson Australia (VHA) as the first customer to switch on services in the regional NSW area of Molong — a region identified as a major blackspot impeding mobile coverage — using the NBN’s Cell Site Access Service (CSAS).

Mobile phone users in Dubbo and further west would benefit from the introduction of domestic roaming, Vodafone CEO Inaki Berroeta said during a visit to the city on Thursday.

Mr Berroeta said Vodafone was determined to improve its coverage in rural areas and give customers an alternative to Telstra and Optus.

However he said it was possible to compete with a company that was receiving public money to build towers in blackspot areas, which generated more revenue for Telstra from those customers.

“We want to be able to offer in regional Australia the same quality of service that we offer in Sydney and we also want to be an alternative provider to the existing providers,” Mr Berroeta said.

“We are looking at our investment and we are also participating in the mobile blackspot program with the government and other parties. The third part is we are promoting domestic roaming.

“This part of Australia has such a low population density that it isn’t possible to build parallel networks and the best solution is to have a single network and have co-investment to share the cost of investment.”

Vodafone first telco to use NBN for mobile coverage boost

03 Feb 2017

Vodafone has signed the first deal to use NBN’s long awaited Cell Site Access Service (CSAS) product, which will let telcos leverage National Broadband Network infrastructure to boost their mobile coverage.

The telco will use the new NBN service to deliver coverage in Molong, NSW. Vodafone has installed extra antennas on an NBN tower normally used to deliver the network wholesaler’s fixed wireless service in the region.

Voice and data will be transported back to NBN’s Dubbo Point of Interconnection and handed off to Vodafone.

Vodafone’s Molong coverage boost is part of the federal government mobile black spot program, which helps subsidise telcos’ rollout of mobile infrastructure in underserved areas.

Vodafone has long advocated making NBN infrastructure available to telcos, with Telstra’s cellular network still having the widest coverage out of Australia's mobile network operators.

Cut Telstra cable downs Perth mobile, fixed services

03 Feb 2017

Grappling with third-party fault at same time as exchange fire.

"Severe" damage to a Telstra cable at a Perth construction site overnight has downed services for the telco's local customers, at the time same as the company was struggling to contain the fallout from a fire at a core exchange in Sydney.

Telstra users in the Perth area last night complained of having of no mobile, home phone, or internet services.

The telco confirmed an unidentified third-party had caused "severe damage" to one of its cables at a construction site in the region overnight.

It said its teams were working "around the clock" to get services restored for customers, and told iTnews the cable should be restored and mobile, home phone, and internet services back online this afternoon.

End of January Update

03 Feb 2017

This fortnight it seems Vodafone is getting 2017 off with a bit of a bang, activating 22 new sites as well as upgrading 65 more. NSW and QLD got the bulk of the new sites with 8 and 5 respectively. Rural NSW also got 3 of those towers a couple of which were Blackspot towers.

Optus Activated 20 sites with 8 and 6 sites being in VIC and QLD. Many of the VIC sites were all Melbourne CBD and higher frequencies, it seems Optus is planning its own gigabit CBD network after Telstra recently announced its own. Optus only upgraded an additional 29 sites this fortnight, with 4G900 getting added to several sites. Since Optus hasn’t disabled its 2G services yet it’s possible those are just place holders for when the switch off occurs.

Telstra’s woes seem to go from bad to worse with its recent exchange fire knocking out mobile services across several states. Telstra does appear to planning a massive rollout of 4G700 as well as 4G900 with an additional 168 proposals continuing on from last reports 80 proposals. Telstra managed 8 new sites as well as 51 site upgrades with 4G1800 being rolled out ahead of the lower bands.

NBN upgraded 6 sites we well as added 7 more. NBN seems to have completed its rural wireless network and will now focus on its outer Metro networks across the country. It seems there will be quite a few premises across the country that currently get ADSL service to be replaced with Satellite, NBN refuses to release those numbers and with good reason as that’s just an appalling outcome for those premises. The end of my street appears to be in that situation.

The low band 700mhz 4G gap between Optus and Telstra has decreased by 9 sites as Telstra appears to be ramping up. Optus is still ahead of Telstra however in 4G700 by 1102 sites.

Vodafone’s Berroeta wants ACCC action on mobile roaming

02 Feb 2017

Vodafone Australia boss Inaki Berroeta has warned the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission not to kick the can down the road on regulated ­domestic mobile roaming, urging it instead to take decisive action and ensure stronger ­competition for regional users.

With the competition regulator expected to release a draft determination on the issue in March, Mr Berroeta criticised ­rivals Telstra and Optus for trying to entrench a duopoly without the facts to back up their positions.

“There’s a clear gap in the availability of communication ­services across large parts of ­Australia and we are proposing a way forward, but rather than ­exploring the possibilities or proposing alternatives Telstra and Optus are instead busy stating how bad this is for investment, ” Mr Berroeta told
The Australian.

“If you look at what has happened in other countries that have used a roaming mechanism there has been no slowdown in investment, so what facts are they using to say that it won’t happen here?

“The ACCC needs to ensure that it doesn’t waste this opportunity because all we hear from Telstra is that the way things are now is good, which is not what ­regional users are saying.”

Vodafone switches on new site

THE Coalition Government's Mobile Black Spots Program has increased mobile phone coverage in Cooyar with 4G services now available in the region.

On Tuesday, Cooyar became Vodafone's first Queensland site to be switched on as part of the program.

Maranoa MP David Littleproud said the launch of the new site coincided with the Regional Telecommunications Forum as it was an opportunity to engage senior telco leaders while they were in the region.

"The new 4G site has been switched on by Vodafone Australia, which means more than 260 homes will now have mobile phone voice and data access thanks to funding under the Coalition Government's Mobile Black Spots Program,” Mr Littleproud said.

"Coverage has been extended to include about 744 square kilometres, bolster the communication network to include the New England Highway and the Oakey-Cooyar Rd...”